The Eighth Doctor
by Jed Rhodes
Summary: Imagine the Eighth Doctor. Brave, passionate, funny. Now imagine he survived the Time War. Keep that thought in your head. Have you got it? Is that image clear in your head? Good – then read on, to hear the tale of our lost Doctor, if he hadn’t been lost.
1. Rose Tyler

Once upon a time, there was a man. No, that's not quite right – there was a brilliant man, called the Doctor.

The one I'm on about, is the Eighth. The Eighth Doctor. The 'young Edwardian version', someone once called him. Brave, passionate, and just plain marvellous. Imagine, just imagine, that the Eighth Doctor had survived the great Time War. Think of that for a moment. Have you thought? Is that image clear in your head? Good. Now imagine, that Rose Tyler, about to be killed by a shop window dummy, meets this Doctor...

--

Rose Tyler watched as the dummy raised it's arm. She closed her eyes – surely this was it…

Someone grabbed her hand – she snapped her head to the left, and stared into the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

"Run," the man smiled, and she did.

They ran down the corridor, away from the dummies, who were running just as fast to catch them up. The man was running ahead of her, but kept his hand on hers. They reached the lift, and he stopped, and ran inside, Rose following. As the door closed, a dummy rammed its arm in, trying to reach him. He grabbed the arm, and yanked it off, in one fluid movement. He tossed it to Rose.

"You pulled his arm off," she pointed out.

"Yes, I did, didn't I?" he smiled. "Plastic," he added, as if that explained everything. She looked at it, and saw it was indeed plastic.

"Oh very funny," she said, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Who're they then, students?"

The man looked at her in mild disbelief. It was only then she noticed what he was wearing – full Victoriana, frock coat, cravat, waistcoat, suit trousers in a light shade of grey... his hair was long and curly, and his face was young – but the eyes were so old…

"Why," he asked her, "would they be students?"

"Well," she flustered, rather put out, "I dunno."

"Well, it was your idea," he pointed out. "So tell me – why would these plastic shop window dummies be students?"

"Because," she said, slightly angry at his patronising tone, "to get that many people being stupid and dressing up, they've just gotta be students!"

The man smiled at her – it was a radiant thing as well, full of wisdom and hope. "Very clever, well reasoned, concise point, eight out of ten," he told her, then frowned and said to himself, barely audible (though Rose could hear him) "and when did I start channelling Borusa?"

"Whoever they are," Rose continued, "when Wilson finds them, he's gonna call the Police!"

"Who's Wilson?" the man asked.

"Chief Electrician," she told him. His eyes softened slightly.

"I'm very much afraid that Wilson is dead," he said sadly, then the lift pinged and he went outside. She followed – surely he was joking? But the tone of his voice…

"Hold back, don't look at this," he said, pushing her away from the controls. He held a silver pen-like device up and it emitted a high pitched whirring, and the controls sparked.

"What's that?" Rose asked. He ignored her. "Who're you?" he ignored her. "Well, who are they then?!"

He jogged off, leaving her to follow. As they jogged, he answered her last question.

"They're made of plastic – a rather nasty living variety. It's being controlled by a relay station on the top of this rather charming building, which would be a rather sticky situation if – I didn't have this!" he held up a little ticking clock with a stick of dynamite attached. He looked at it for a moment, then stuffed it in his pocket and took out another one – this time slightly less cartoony. "I'm going up to the very top, and blowing the whole thing to pieces – and I might well be killed in the process, but I wouldn't worry, if I were you, no, you just go home, watch Eastenders and go to bed."

He pointed her out of a back door, then looked very serious for a moment.

"Do not tell anyone you've met me," he said, "or that you saw those dummies. If you do, you'll get yourself killed, and them to."

He shut the door on her, and she turned away. A second later, the door opened again, and she turned around to see him smiling again.

"Oh by the by, I'm the Doctor," he told her. "And you are?"

"Rose," she said.

"Rose…?"

"Tyler."

He grinned at her.

"Lovely to meet you Rose Tyler," he smiled. Then he held up the little bomb. "Now run for your life!"

He slammed the door, and she ran.


	2. Make Something Of It

Now, after the building exploded, this could have been the end of it. Rose Tyler could have lived a normal life. If it weren't for the fact of that shop window dummy arm…

Knock, knock.

At her home, in the Powell Estate, Rose Tyler answered the door. Simple. What was not simple was the fact that the man – the Doctor – was the man knocking.

"Hello!" he said, smiling again. He then blanched as he saw her. "Oh it's you! Oh dear… what are you doing here?"

"I live here," she said angrily.

"Really? Why?"

"Cos I do!" she yelled. He took a step back, then looked at his silver pen thing.

"Signal reaches here, how odd… you aren't made of plastic by any chance, are you?" he asked, tapping her on the head with his finger. Then he shrugged. "No," he said. "Flesh, blood and bone. Ah well – goodbye."

She grabbed his arm and dragged him inside.

"You," she told him, "aren't going anywhere until you've explained what the hell is going on!"

"Hm," he said, looking at her as if she was a misbehaving child. Then he looked down the corridor, and looked at his pen thing again. Rose sighed and walked down the corridor, leaving him there to his ruminations. He looked into a room, only for a woman to yell at him that "she deserves compensation!"

He looked at her – probably Miss Tylers mother.

"Hello," he said, smiling.

She looked at him for a moment.

"I'm in my dressing gown, she said at last.

"Are you?" he replied, then looked and saw that yes, she was indeed in her dressing gown.

"There's a strange man in my bedroom," she continued, smiling slightly. He looked at his feet – they were indeed over the little metal strip that the door rested on, so yes, he was indeed in her bedroom.

"Well, yes I suppose there is…" he said, looking up and smiling innocently.

"Well," she said, smiling as well, "anything could happen."

He clicked what she was on about.

"Ah. Oh. Er… best not, eh?" he smiled, walking off quickly. She humphed.

--

He wandered into the living room, and looked around, picking up a magazine. Rose was talking, but he didn't listen. Not important.

"Well, that won't last," he muttered to himself about a celebrity marriage. "He's gay, and she's a Cephalapod from Dontarionatra."

He dropped the magazine, and picked up a book. He flicked through it, and then put it down with a sad sniff.

"Sad ending," he sighed. "Terrible, terrible..." he caught sight oif himself in a mirror. He pulled on his hair, rubbed his nose with his finger, and looked into his eyes.

"Well," he said after a moment. "Considering what it's been through, the face is good."

He sighed, and then turned on his heel as a small noise cauight his attention. A thumnp. He took out his Sonic Screwdriver, and held it up, sending an all purpose signal dampening wave into the room. Almost instantly, the hand leaped up, and then collapsed as the signal died.

"What a relief," he muttered. Rose came into the room with the cup of tea, and he smiled at her.

"Why thank you, Miss Tyler," he said. He downed the tea ion one go, and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute," she protested, "where're you going?"

"Well," he said, holding up the hand, "I found what I was looking for, so there's really no need for me to intrude any more."

He walked out.

"But... but you can't just go swanning off!" she yelled, chasing after him as he swept away.

"Nonsense - of course I can!" he replied. "As evidenced, by the fact that I _am!"_

"But..."

"No buts!" he said, turning to her, and looking more serious than she had seen before. "Go home, and forget you ever met me," he said, sternly. "I am nobody."

"Why do you want that plastic hand?" she asked.

He looked at her in complete silence, then sniffed. "Souvenier."

He walked off.

"But what about those plastic things, those dummies?" she asked, persistently following him. "Why did they try to kill me? What did I do?"

The Doctor sighed. Humans.

"You did nothing," he told her. "Absolutely nothing. You were there, and you weren't supposed to be, that's all."

"Oh," she said, and she almost looked unhappy.

"Look," he said, his voice softer than before, "why don't you just go home, put your feet up, and relax, eh? I'll sort this dummy lot out in no time. Done it before."

"Just tell me one thing, though," she asked. "Who are you, really?"

"I told you," he said. "I'm the Doctor. Nobody in particular."

"But that's just a title," she said. "Who are you,_ really?"_

He smiled, and looked at her.

"I'm... complicated. I've been a lot of different people. Old and young. Arrogant and humble. But in the end, I'm just a wanderer. Nobody important."

He took her hand.

"But you could be somebody," he told her. "If you just believe. Rose Tyler. Go out there, and make something of your life - your wonderful life."

He smiled, and let go of her hand, before walking off. She watched him go into a blue box, then watched the blue box vanish.

--


	3. You're an alien

Rose wasn't going to let the Doctor slip away that easily. As soon as she got the chance, she looked for him on Mickey's computer.

'Doctor' just got some random NHS stuff. 'Doctor living plastic' got some old literature. She tried 'Doctor blue box,' however, and it came up with a site called 'who is Doctor Who?' She clicked n it and thge first thing that came up was a picture of the Doctor.

--

She went to the address that she had found, of a man called Clive. When she arrived, he showed her his collection of pictures. Somehow, the same man, the same Doctor, was in all sorts of different periods of history. Then Clive voiced his thoery that the Doctor was an alien from another world - and Rose made her excuses and left. She couldn't believe that she had taken this guy seriously. So Mickey took her to a restaurant. He was acting strangely, and she could swear that there was something up with his skin...

--

"Babe, the Doctor is dangerous," Mickey was telling her. "Now if you know ewhere he is, I need to know..."

"Champagne?" the waiter asked for the third time. Mickey sighed, and looked up to the man, who was standing behind Rose.

"Look, I told you, we don't - ah. Gotcha."

Rose spun around, andf the Doctor smiled at her, before bashing Mickey over the head. Rather than fall unconscious with bits of broken glass showering all over him, as Rose would have expected, his head molded to the bottle, before bouncing up and repelling it. The Doctor dropped the bottle.

"What a waste of good bubbly," he commented, as Mickey stood up - his hands morphing into dangerous implements.

The Doctor said nothing more, only smiled and held up a little spray.

"What good's that?!" Rose yelled at him.

"Polly Cocktail," the Doctor smiled, and sprayed Mickeys shovel-hands. They dissolved, and Mickey screamed in pain. The Doctor grabbed him in a headlock, and pulled his head off.

"Right," he said, pulling out the spray and spraying the rest of the body, which slowly dissolved - even the clothes.

"What's Polly Cocktail?" asked Rose.

"This," the Doctor smiled. "Anyway, hello again, we really must stop meeting like this."

He wandered off, Rose staring after him, beofre follwing him.

"Are you gonna start explaining yourself?!" she yelled at him. They had walked outside by this point, and the Doctor was at the door of his box.

"Um... no," he replied, smiling. "Not really my problem. Of course, you're perfectly welcome to come in here, that should explain everything!"

He opened the door to the box, and walked inside. She stared at the open door for a moment, then ran after him.

Then she ran right out.

"That's not possible," she said, shocked out of ther mind. "That's just not possible."

"Oh stop dallying!" the Doctor yelled out at her. "I want to get off!"

She ran inside again, and convinced her legs to stay put.

It was big, gothic, and dark, with a massive ceiling that was so far up that she couldn't actually see it that well. At the centre was a massive six sided console, with brass levers and knobs.

"Well?" the Doctor asked, from this console. "Anything to say?"

"It's..."

"Yes?"

"Bigger. On the inside. Bigger on the inside."

"Yes."

She stared at him. He actually seemed rather bored of having to explain it all to her.

"You're not human," she pointed out.

"I should hope not," he said.

"You're an alien," she continued.

"Well, yes," he said.

"This is a space ship," she added.

"Well, Time Machine really. Time and Space vessel. TARDIS."

She looked at him for a moment.

"Say that again," she asked.

"TARDIS?" he asked. When she nodded, he continued, "stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Or was it Dimension? I can't actually remember."

"You are insane," she pointed out.

"Oh no," he said, suddenly very ernest. "I'm deadly serious. Deadly, deadly serious."

"Yeah? Then why do you dress like a cowboy?" she commented. He sighed, and turned back to his console. Only then did they bothg notice that the plastic Mickey-head he'd attached to the console happened to be melting.

"Oh pants!" the Doctor yerlled, flicking a switch. "Pantspantspants..."

The room suddenly filled with the most horrible noise - like a dying elephant, or a broken trumpet. Rose covered her ears as the room shook - and then it was silent, and the Doctor slammed his fist down on the console in anger.

"I almost had it!" he yelled, storming out of the door he'd come in by. Rose followed him out.

--

They were near Westminster Bridge, near the riverside. Rose could see the London Eye from here.

"What were you doing with the head?" she asked.

"All Autons -" he began.

"Autons?" she interrupted.

"The technical term for the living dummies," he explained. "As I was saying, all Autons are controlled by a control signal - like remote contol. It must be coming from London somewhere, and I'm trying to find where. It would be a massive structure, possibly circular."

He sighed.

"What about Mickey?" Rose asked him, tentatively. "Is he... dead?"

"Doubtful," the Doctor told her. "They need the original alive when they copy them If we find where the Nestene Consciousness is fast enough, we can stop it from killing him, or launching it's invasion."

"Why do they want to invade?" Rose asked.

"Well, their world is gone, like so many others that were lost during... well, during the war." He suddenly looked very sad, and looked out across London. "Your world is as close to theirs as they can find in this galaxy. So they want it, and they'll kill your whole species to get it."

"Kinda extreme," Rose commented.

"Is it?" the Doctor asked her, his expression as hard as stone. "Extermination for territory is a common thing on this world. America for example - do you know that countless Native Americans were slaughtered because they were on land the colonists wanted? Butchered for land? This is little different, in my opinion."

"Yeah," Rose said, a little defensively. "Doesn't make it right."

The Doctors expression softened slightly. "No," he said. "No it doesn't."

"So, where did you say this Nestene Consciousness thing would be hiding?" Rose asked.

"Under it's transmitter," the Doctor replied, sighing again. "It would be a massive structure, as I said, probably metal. Must be shileded from the naked eye..."

"Well," Rose ventured. "What about that?"

She pointed at the London Eye. The Doctor turned around, and shrugged.

"Don't know what you're reffering to," he told her.

"_That!"_ she said, pointing again. He turned, and looked at her again.

"What?" he asked her, sounding mildly annoyed.

"_That!!_" she yelled, pointing again. He turned, and didn't turn back for a moment. Then he turned to her again.

"Oh," he said. He looked again, as if weighing up the possiblities. When he turned around again, he was smiling.

"Marvellous! Come on!"

He grabbed her hand and they ran off.


End file.
